Themes

Themes

“It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.”
– Sherlock Holmes, “A Scandal in Bohemia” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

“Far better an approximate answer to the right question, which is often vague, than an exact answer to the wrong question, which can always be made precise.”
– John Tukey

“To consult the statistician after an experiment is finished is often merely to ask him to conduct a post mortem examination. He can perhaps say what the experiment died of.”
– R.A. Fisher, 1938

Planning a statistical analysis after you’ve collected the data is like developing plans for a structure after you’ve purchased the materials.

“If you are not confused then you are not paying attention” — Tom Peters

The law that entropy always increases holds, I think, the supreme position among the laws of Nature. If someone points out to you that your pet theory of the universe is in disagreement with Maxwell’s equations – then so much the worse for Maxwell’s equations. If it is found to be contradicted by observation – well, these experimentalists do bungle things sometimes. But if your theory is found to be against the second law of thermodynamics I can give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation. – Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington, The Nature of the Physical World (1927)

The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution. – Bertrand Russell

Socrates thought people were more important than ideas … he though ideas existed for the benefit of people, not the other way around. An intellectual is someone who thinks ideas are more important than people. – Paul Johnson, British historian (1928 – ) quoted in WSJ 5 March, 2011

Nothing is so typical of middling minds than to harp on the intellectual deficiencies of the slightly less smart and considerably more successful. – Bret Stephens, WSJ, 9 Aug. 2011

“If you think that statistics has nothing to say about what you do or how you could do it better, then you are either wrong or in need of a more interesting job.” – Stephen Senn (Dicing with Death: Chance, Risk and Health, Cambridge University Press, 2003)

Occam’s razor, “Pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate” (“Plurality should not be posited without necessity”), is the law of economy or law of parsimony. More colloquially, “Don’t use a more complicated explanation when a simpler one will do the job.” – William of Occam (1285–1347/49)

Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats. – Howard Aiken

“If you want to make enemies, try to change something.” – Woodrow Wilson

“Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts.” – Richard Feynman

“Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.”
– Margaret Thatcher (1923-2013)

The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.
– paraphrased from a statement by Margaret Thatcher,
in a television interview on February 5, 1976.

“Evil preaches tolerance until it is dominate, and then it seeks to silence good.” – Archibishop Chaput of Philadelphia

A job not worth doing is not worth doing well.

You cannot unsay an unkind word.

“The combination of some data and an aching desire for an answer does not ensure that a reasonable answer can be extracted from a given body of data.” – John Tukey

“Are the effects of A and B different? They are always different – for some decimal place.” – John Tukey

Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often. – Mark Twain

“When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.” – Mark Twain

There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact – Sherlock Holmes (The Boscombe Valley Mystery)

“I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” – James Madison, 4th president of US (1751-1836) in a speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 16, 1788

“Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.” – Louis Brandeis (1856-1941) Associate Justice of the Supreme Court from 1916 to 1939

“I would rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned” — Richard Feynman

“Job creation and destruction are relentless. The small difference between the two is what we call prosperity.” – H.W. Jenkins, Jr., WSJ, 14 Jan. 2012.

In earlier times, they had no statistics, and so they had to fall back on lies. – unknown

For many people knowledge has the remarkable power of producing confidence instead of measureable aptitude. – Nassim Nicholas Taleb in The Black Swan (2007)

A couple of months in the laboratory can frequently save several hours in the library. – unknown